European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 28, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday september 28, 1985 columns William Buckley submariners epitomize dedication Esprit de corps Groton Conn. We arc brought up on the Maxim that eternal vigilance is the Price of Freedom but it soon becomes boilerplate and for the very Good reason that most of us arc not engaged in exercising such vigilance except indirectly via internal Revenue to which a dispatch every year 6 percent of the Gros National product with the mandate that the Money go to our armed services. It is Worth it to experience How Ever indirectly what it is that the military does for us. In my own experience even As a sometime infantry fool Soldier it is hard to rival the hardships of the me who staff our nuclear submarine Fleet. The Boston is an attack submarine and if you Are member of its Crew you can expect to be at sea one half of the Calendar year. To be at sea needs Here to be especially explicated you arc not really at sea you arc in the sea. Cmdr. . Riffer says that he likes it when you surface Only to enter and leave your Home port. In Between he likes himself and his vessel entirely immersed in water. That Way they Don t easily establish where you Are. You never help them by sending radio signals. That is what the attack submarine is created to do to roam inc seas within pc for two three months at a time. They measure fuel in a nuclear vessel in terms of years Supply As in the Boston has a 12-year Supply of there is Only one limiting Factor food. Food for 118 men who Are served four times a Day. That about 15,000 meals per month. And stored food requires space. Space is very precious aboard a submarine that costs $670 million so precious that a Crew member nine sailors share what is called a Cabin which would not pass inspection As suitable living quarters at Alca Traz is permitted for his personal belongings 2w inches of space under his mattress period. The Captain s Cabin would fit in a Pullman Romette with space left Over. What matters besides the food is the submarine s ability to carry a mix of very deadly space con suming weapons cruise missiles and my 48 a a Torpe does top of the line stuff and the propelling nuclear devices that take up two thirds of the submarine s 360 foot length the sub displaces 6,900 tons of water draws 32 feel and has a beam of 32 feet. After the missile and the propulsive mechanism there is the com Puter world. Computers to navigate by computers to reckon where and when to fire computers to code and decode. And then most critically the sonar room where virtuosos listen and with the Aid of the loops and whorls of Remote sounds discern the fingerprints of Friend or foe and act accordingly. They be been telling you for years adm. James d. Williams the Tough and amiable North carolinian who commands the submarine group based at Groton re minds you about the transparent Ocean. Well it s not transparent the Admiral is reminding us that our submarine Fleet is the one member of the triad whose every movement is not readily traceable. The enemy knows where our land based missiles arc and their radar will Tell them when our bombers approach. But not yet the submarines. And if it canc to that com Mander Riffer says the enemy would know that even if the submarine has to wait to fire wait a Day maybe two three Days it will eventually execute its orders and and if the enemy knows that that is Likely to happen the enemy behaves to the extent that it a a Ever be said about the soviet Union that it behaves. Bat we have been 40 years without nuclear War 40 Yean with Western Europe and Groton Conn., still free. Almost every enlisted Man aboard u a highly skilled technician. Many officers signed up As students Junior year in College. Their College tuition is paid by the naval . For two years in return for which they pledge five years to the submarine Fleet 2v4 of these devoted to learning their specialities. Re enlist mint figures have been impressive. It is an exacting life. Six hours on duty 12 off duty in cramped quarters without family without women. Why do they do it it is hard to recall in our jaded age that there is still such a thing As Esprit de Corn but nothing other than that could possibly account for life aboard a nuclear submarine the sense that the work is most awfully important contributing perhaps the decisive Factor in maintaining a free country to which the submarine returns from time to Lime and maintaining the peace which All of us paying so relatively Small Acost enjoy. 1c 19�5 Unive Rul pros Sam title Carl Rowan tax Reform support v 1 mile wide /2-Inch deep from Independence to to Raleigh n.c., and Points beyond. Presi Dent Reagan is on a crusade to emotional is americans behind inc belief that his lax Reform proposal must be the nation s and the Congress top priority. Audiences respond mightily when he Calls our tax codes unfair unworkable and and says thai while our system of taxation May not be Mur Der it s like a daily Ordinary americans love this kind of talk just As they did when Jimmy Carter called our lax system a National Dis Grace and inspired Waves of fruitless attacks on inc three Martini , As or. Reagan will learn when you get Down to the nitty Gritty americans become suspicious about those advocating lax Reform. Kent Colton executive Vic president of the National association of Home builders says support for the Gen eral idea of Reform is one mile wide and on half Inch accepting the reality that Collon and the real estate Industry have huge Finan Cial interests in blocking inc Reagan plan i say thai he is right in suggesting Hal americans love tax Reform until some one tells them the specifics. Less than a month ago. Millions of americans were outraged by a re porn Hal 50 of the nation s largest corporations with combined profits of More than j56 billion paid no net Federal tax from1981 to 1984, and that 48 of these corporations had enough extra tax Breaks to receive almost s2.4 billion in refunds. This sort of revelation oils the blood Plain outrages the people in or. Reagan s audiences. The president never tells them naturally thai the economic recovery tax act that he pressed through con Gress in 1981 virtually wiped out the corporate income tax or that Reagan Hassid publicly that he personally opposes the corporate income tax. How much citizen frenzy can the president whip up in behalf of a Reform that Lowers the lop corporate tax rate from 46 to 33 percent he is going to have to Promise some ironclad guarantees that every corporation will pay a mini mum tax. Even then any Fervour for tax Reform that he can drum up will fade when the people of Independence Raleigh and for. 5t3t6 3np loc3l taxes in other words Yth d Par a tax of a tax. Other places learn that they cannot de Duel slate and local income taxes their real estate taxes certain interest charges americans Are going to ask Why they should join a crusade for a tax Law that gives the Rich greater advantages punishes Middle class families and winds up adding to the budget deficits and the National debt. I know thai our tax system reflects in axiom Hal them As has gels them As has nol 1 have been railing in this column for a generation against our unfair system of taxation. But i know How difficult and agonizing tax Reform becomes when i look at just one Industry housing especially shelter for poor an Middle class families. The House ways and Means com Mittee which is planning to go into hid ing from the lobbyists and Start Markine up the us Reform proposal has been told by the nations Home builders that the Reagan proposal would reduce single family construction by 95,000 units in the first year of the new Law that mul Lifavi by would redux boy 230,000 units that rents would be in 21 to 28 percent form Taj Artmen projects All because of re Moval of tax incentives for people to in Vest m such housing. And subsidized Low income housing or the poor including the aged the housing Industry Points out that Federal spending has declined from s30 billion a year to $1 1 billion since Reagan " in our me rare Ano loc3l tax dec put of which provides 1985 look class h be Stark. D-calif., us realtors and Home builders Are Simp Lyng for a Clear that a shellers in prod Lee 1 s0me of he dust a m1""" " is equally Clear per people Middle families would not have decent forthe l i Wrout tax shelter incentives families will be left out in the conf congressmen Are impressed by rep Rnell arc v0 demagoguery that tells on Ress now to resolve this dilemma. A Che la Nisnoc Asifo Uja of to a a hats Why Lac Congress is Likely a her lha budget and Trade defied can 2s an the pro Section of Ameri mus ave Pho y T c it Namer. Synd lol
